Today’s edition of quick hits:
* Afghanistan: “Two U.S. troops were killed and six others wounded in an attack Saturday in Nangarhar Province, Afghanistan, a military official said. U.S. and Afghan forces were conducting a joint operation when an individual wearing an Afghan uniform opened fire on the service members using a machine gun, according to Col. Sonny Leggett, spokesman for American forces in Afghanistan.”
* Beijing: “Chinese President Xi Jinping made a public appearance Monday, donning a face mask and having his temperature taken at a “front-line” coronavirus facility in the Chaoyang district of Beijing.”
* This was quite a hack: “The Justice Department has charged four members of the Chinese military with a 2017 hack at the credit reporting agency Equifax, a massive data breach that compromised the personal information of nearly half of all Americans.”
* Quite a story out of the VA: “The Veterans Affairs Department’s inspector general is reviewing a request from a top House leader to investigate allegations that VA Secretary Robert Wilkie sought to dig up dirt on one of the congressman’s aides after she said she was sexually assaulted at VA’s Washington hospital.”
* Elections have consequences in Virginia: “[Last] week, the Virginia House voted to strike Lee-Jackson Day from the list of state holidays. The holiday, observed on the Friday before Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in January, honors Robert E. Lee and Thomas ‘Stonewall’ Jackson as ‘defenders of causes.’ … In its place, the House bill proposed that the state replace it with Election Day, the first Tuesday after the First Monday in November, instead.”
* This is an important point, which relates directly to Sen. Rand Paul’s (R-Ky.) recent antics: “Who’s really shredding standards on Capitol Hill? Naming the alleged whistle-blower is much worse than tearing up a speech.”
* I actually think this is an idea with merit: “The White House is throwing its support behind a plan to transfer the U.S. Secret Service back to the Treasury Department to better focus on the growing threat of online financial crimes.” * Too often, all is not well on the right: “Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) has faced a bitter GOP backlash after casting the lone Republican vote for President Trump’s impeachment. There have been angry tweets and calls for the party to expel the man it once nominated to lead the country. On Sunday, one influential conservative went so far as to say he could not be sure of Romney’s safety at a major right-wing gathering, alarming some of the Utah senator’s defenders and — in some critics’ eyes — crossing a line from outrage to threat.” See you tomorrow. MORE: Today’s Maddowblog
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
Latest Post
Recommended
